New Year

Time to pay attention to this blog--either post more often (and more interesting) or give it up.  I'm not ready to give it up so I'll try to post more often.  Do I have anything to say?  Always!

Went to Potsdam today, left home by 10 and stayed at Jenica's until after 3, was home around 4:20.  The roads were fine, some a bit slick but mostly all was just fine.  The windshield kept icing over in the morning, which meant that Tess was too hot in the front seat and panted a lot.  The visit was great, Jenica and I always have good chatting and enjoy each other very much.  Gwen is a cute, cute little girl with curly blonde hair and the Parker genes hard at work (Parker=my maternal grandmother's family).  She looks a lot like a baby Jenica, and let's hope that space between her front teeth is a temporary thing.

Justin (Jenica's husband) showed me a nifty portable propane heater, which can use regular propane canisters.  I hurried up and ordered one for my mother, had it shipped to her.  It seems simple and straightforward enough for Liza to use, if she needs it.  She worries endlessly about power outages and the lack of heat.  Let's hope it's not an issue for her, but I think she'll find this to be reassuring.

Jenica reminded me that this round of El Nino weather may match that of 1997-98.  Swell.  That was the hell of the ice storm.  I have a much better understanding of how to handle that situation, should it happen again.  But oh my oh my do I hope we skip it.  That was just awful.  Thank goodness I have good friends who helped me and supported me though the crisis.

Justin also fixed my mailbox!  Boy am I excited about that.  It was smashed and he hammered it out.  It actually opens and closes now.  Next step: attach it to a post.  I am still pissed off at the county plowman who broke the post and the mailbox.  Joe has offered to fix it for me when he comes in May but I'm hoping I can figure something out soon.  Meanwhile I go to AuSable to pick up my mail, not every day.  Do I get a lo of mail?  The mailwoman thinks so.  I have probably too many subscriptions--I inherited the need for constantly renewed printed matter from my father.  When I was a kid we subscribed to just about every conceivable magazine (Time AND Newsweek, Look AND Life, even Punch, the British magazine with cartoons I never understood).  And so I repeat the pattern.  Do I read everything I get?  NO, of course not, but I do enjoy what I read.  Can I keep up with The New Yorker?  or The Week?  Barely.  OK, honestly, not totally, but I try.  I depend on television much more than my father did as a source of information and news.

I don't know that I've ever had actual resolutions for a new year, but this year I'm truly hoping to lose a pound a week.  I'm doing better at limiting what's in my kitchen to healthier options, and I'm trying to eat protein for dinner every night.  Boy I sure do prefer whole milk yogurt over low- or no-fat yogurt.  Yikes--that was all they had for plain yogurt in AuSable, so YUM I'm enjoying it.

Ah, Bill Cosby is on the news right now.  What a pig.  Shouldn't I reserve judgment until all is settled?  Not when there are 50 people saying the same thing.

It's still warm here, 25 right now.  We're due to have real winter weather Sunday night through Tuesday morning; temps going below zero.  I hope I've figured out enough about using my wonderful stove and have made a difference with the few things I've done so it will be warmer in my house this year.  It will still be expensive because I have to use my electric heaters, but it is what it is.

The dogs are great.  I took them with me today and the poor things never got out of the car.  They were well-behaved, except for Tess' batting my arm on the way home.  PAY ATTENTION TO ME.  She probably had to pee.  Anyway both dogs are doing well.  I had New Years Eve dinner with friends last night--the son of these friends (well, I suppose he's my friend too) has a black Lab from the same breeder I get my dogs from.  She's a beautiful dog, born around the same time Treasure was.  And WOW on Monday I'm scheduled to return to Sue's (the breeder) to help inoculate and microchip another litter.  Whenever I talk to her I am reminded how much I really, really like dogs.  Especially Labs.  What great animals.